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Nephin is a problematic name and few sources venture an interpretation. It is mentioned as one of the twelve great mountains of Ireland in Cath Maige Tuired (The Second Battle of Moyturra), where it is called Nemthenn. This is suggestive of nemeton, a Gaulish term for a sacred clearing in a wood or sacred grove. The word recurs throughout the Celtic world, from the Galatian Drunemeton ('sacred oak-grove' in modern Turkey) to Nemetobriga in Spain and Aquae Arnemetiae, the sacred spring at Buxton in Derbyshire. The Old Irish fidnemed refers to a shrine in a forest. [Barry Cunliffe, The Ancient Celts]. There seem to be no survivals of traditions connected directly with Nephin to confirm this. However, Nephin's much lower neighbour Tristia (322m, 4km to the NW) was the site of Lughnasa celebrations until recent times [Máire MacNeill]. Glen Nephin is the only example of an Irish glen (apparently) named after the mountain overlooking it. Walks: for a route to the summit from the E, see Whilde & Simms, New Irish Walk Guide - West and North, 69.
Nephin is the highest mountain in the North Mayo area and the 37th highest in Ireland. Nephin is the second highest point in county Mayo.Trackback: https://mountainviews.ie/summit/36/?PHPSESSID=tumtb20lm83gmh188l1mh5atm4

Climbed Nephin on 31/1/09. Parked at the entrance to Pruglish forest, to the SW of the mountain, walked up past the farmhouse and along the edge of the forest, under the pylons. At the end of the forest, we crossed a stile and veered slightly left to pick up the mountain shoulder at a low level. It is quite a distance from the forest to the summit (about 3km). The cloud level was about 400m, so it was very difficult to know how far we had left to go, with all the false tops along the way. Once we reached about 650m, the gradient became very mild and there were plenty of snow patches at that level. We stayed no more than 1 minute at the trig station as we were exposed to a bitter east wind. On the way down, we retraced our steps to about 650m and then took a southerly route off the mountain to meet up with a minor road leading to the road running NE/SW on the south of the mountain. This involved a steep descent over slippy peat. Once below cloud level, the views over Lough Beltra and Clew Bay were spectacular.
In terms of physical effort, Nephin is relatively straight forward for an 800m+ mountain. Trackback: https://mountainviews.ie/summit/36/comment/3553/